Without people yer nothing.
Homage to Joe Strummer of the Clash, I had the privilege of meeting him and Mick jones and saw them several times. Joe just spoke the truth and fought for people.
Without people yer nothin’
Punk rocker unrepentant
Why the fuck should I be?
Lose the resentment?
Have all the social jokes
Become a real hilarity?
Yes I see it all the time.
Because they’re back!
But so are we.
We never left.
Here’s the litany of lies
Leading us to hang
Miners sorry for missing the truth.
Sorry Maggie, if it wasn’t for us
You wouldn’t have to pay
All that police overtime.
But times were hard
so its nice you looked after them.
Another…. Fighting racism.
friendly horses charging at people
in exchange for carrots and hay.
Horses earning more in carrots
then striking miners earned in a month.
Another…. Blair Peach, an innocent man
Came over from New Zealand
He was a teacher, not a preacher
But he was smacked on the head
And so became dead.
People taken, humans as marionettes for the rich.
Plaything, playtime, postured people.
Bastards in BMW’s sucking at the Tory nipple.
Peoples blood the national tipple.
ATOS saying yer not a cripple.
And why they’ll lose?
Because they don’t know
What a person is
What a real life is
What real people are….
What we are.
….so the message that they all forgot
From a bed in Strummerville.
The message to the haves and the have nots
Ordinary words to lead us on
Simple words To lead us from
Little mouse trails till bloods last rave
Joe spinning in his Strummerville grave.
Always looking for those to save
Gravelled voice. calls out from within the coffin
That Strummer voice. “Without people your nothin’”
Nice tribute poem. i wore out the album Combat Rock when it first came out.
Thanks Chairman, Yes the Clash, saw em six times in the day and even met Joe Strummer and Mick jones and shared a beer. Great days, Joes words live on and on and always will.
I share the sentiment. I shall be taking part in a march here in Edinburgh next month against the government and the way we are being robbed of our free speech , free will, free anything, What saddens me is where have all the balls gone? Where has the red blooded rebellion, not in violence but about basic human freedoms dissipated to? I can hardly watch the entire world being gas lighted into a nightmare but I have lived long enough to witness the end effects of the masses being poisoned by food, air and treachery and doing FA about… Read more »
We should all march Alison, and keep marching until we are cleansed of the blight of greed and selfish rubbery. I’ll be standing beside your rebel stance! I’m neither a communist or anarchist either in these situations I’m a humanist. But not a roll over peaceful one, I threw bricks at the National Front, and punched the local NF member standing for council right on the nose… I feel no shame for that.
I remember Blair Peach, being in London at the time; and a good ‘up yer nose wiv a rubber hose’ kind of poem; keep up the righteous anger!
Yes it was a disgrace the judge said he died as his skull was thinner than normal, as Kiwi’s we all were incensed as was most on the left. He’d been murdered by the special patrol group. and it was being covered up. Thanks for your comment mate.
Strewth!! Didn’t know you were a Kiwi? Do you watch the Brokenwood Mysteries (as do I) for a nostalgia trip? Anyway, yes, he was most certainly given a head-massage by the spg’s. Interesting times.